Tag Archives: Fiat

This is a Carro Armato M14/41 tank, as manufactured by Fiat for the Royal Italian Army. That means we’re not sure which side this magnificently moustachioed mini-figure is on as Italy switched during World War 2. However as this tank is painted in the colours of the North Africa Campaign it suggests he’s fighting for Mussolini, a man known to have been ‘a bit of a dick’.

Luckily for TLCB’s home nation and the other Allies that this tank fought against, the M14/41 was absolutely rubbish, being obsolete when new, unreliable, cramped, and catching fire regularly. Which is most unlike a Fiat.

Fortunately these short-comings led to a less than successful military campaign, and likely hastened Italy’s overthrowing of Mussolini, abandonment of fascism, and switch to the Allied cause.

This brilliant mini-figure scale recreation of the Carro Armato M14/41 comes from Albert of Flickr, making his TLCB debut. Ingenious building techniques abound and there’s more to see at Albert’s photostream – click the link above to make the jump.

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This might be the most Italian thing we’ve ever seen. This beautiful scene complete with two of Italy’s most iconic vehicles, the Vespa scooter and the Fiat 500, comes from the very Italian-sounding Gabriele Zannotti and the, er… Greek-sounding Zeto Vince. Whatever, this could only be more Italian with the addition of a pretty girl, and there’s more to see of this excellent collaboration at Gabriele Zannotti’s photostream – click here to take a look.

Inside Michel has taken care of every detail, from tools to trophies, rubber to race cars, nothing is missing, and it’s all been thoughtfully replicated in miniature from our favourite Danish plastic.

Outside the workshop and underneath some stunning brick-built lettering are a trio of historic Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 racing cars, complete with a superb Fiat team transporter ready to take the cars to their next race.

Michel hasn’t stopped with Formula 1 either, as Ferrari’s legendary endurance racers and sports cars have also been exquisitely recreated in Lego form.

There’s a whole lot more to see of Michel’s incredible build at his Flickr photostream by clicking here, and if anyone from LEGO is reading this; please make this an official set. You know you want to!

Going smooth requires a fair bit more effort than staying au-natural, but it’s definitely worth it. These two old-timey vehicles from Pixel Junkie and RGB900 show how to do it. There’s more to see of Pixel’s vintage Fiat and RGB’s Morgan inspired 3-wheeler on Flickr – click the links above to get waxed.

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LEGO have been doing fantastically well out of their expansion into officially licensed automotive partnerships. Fans love the sets, as they get a real-world car to build, and it’s great publicity for car manufacturers too – a child playing with a LEGO version of their product today may buy one for real when they grow up!

MINI, Volkswagen, Ferrari, Volvo, Porsche, McLaren, and most recently Caterham have all seen one or more of their vehicles recreated in Danish plastic, and the collaboration of saabfan2013 and Gabriele Zannotti would like to add another iconic car to LEGO’s officially licensed line-up.

This is, of course, the wonderful original Fiat 500 (or Cinquecento in Italian) which saabfan and Gabriele have recreated beautifully in LEGO form. Featuring opening doors, bonnet and engine lid, as well as a detailed interior, this little Fiat looks the prefect companion to the already released MINI Cooper and Volkswagen Beetle Creator sets available to buy today.

If you like it as much as we do you can support the Fiat 500 on the LEGO Ideas platform, whereby your votes could turn this design into an official LEGO set! Add your vote by clicking here, and you can see more of the build at saabfan‘s Flickr photostream by clicking here.

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It’s a rare event when a Lego creation shares something in common with Wonderbra, so this wire-framed VAZ-2101 by Desert752 Kiril marks a TLCB first. The interesting bodywork design is employed for essentially the same reason as Wonderbra’s patented underwiring; to lift its contents as much as possible.

However, unlike Wonderbra’s garment of lies, Desert752’s VAZ is using its wiring technology to offer you much more than you’d expect… because its lightweight minimalism allows it to drift!

Without the weight of thick plastic bricks to overcome, the VAZ’s Power Functions motors can have a riot on shiny surfaces. You can see the VAZ in glorious sideways-y action at Desert752’s MOCpage, or via the Eurobricks discussion forum here.

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Fiat might only make small shopping cars these days, but their history is much more exciting. This lovely Lego pre-war Fiat racer was found on Flickr, built by TLCB debutants Omar + Kazumi Ovalle. There’s more to see at the link above, but before you do we highly recommend seeing what a vintage race car like this can do – turn your volume up…

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European, rear engined, rear wheel drive… the Fiat 126 was nearly identical to a Porsche 911. Except in every other measurable way.

We’ve often derided the little Fiat and its siblings here at TLCB, because they spawned more hateful Communistical automotive landfill than almost any other vehicular design. However, before the 126 was handed over to Eastern Europe to be badly built by dictatorial regimes it was actually a damn good car. A segment leading one in fact, even to the point that Ford benchmarked it when designing their new supermini in the 1970s; the Fiesta.

This Technic version of the 126 has, somewhat confusingly, been built by Porsche96 over on Brickshelf. It’s got opening doors and trunk, Power Functions remotely controlled drive and steering, and a working gearbox too. You can see the Fiat’s full gallery by clicking the link above.

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We seem to be having a bit of a Fiat day here at TLCB, and our second Fiat-related product is this rather brilliant Technic New Holland tractor by newcomer Flidsager.

New Holland were founded way back in 1895 in America by the extravagantly-named Abram Zimmerman, who started engineering engines and assorted farming machinery for the farmers in his local community. Success brought both expansion and a buyer, and in 1947 the company was bought by Sperry Rand where it continued to prosper. Further acquisitions by Ford, and then by the Fiat Group followed to bring the business to where it is today, offering the widest range of agricultural products in the world.

The T8.420 tractor shown here is built in the US and is powered by a 420bhp straight-six diesel engine. Flidsager’s Technic version features this engine too, alongside pneumatics powered by LEGO’s Power Function motors, remote controlled all-wheel-drive and steering, a working power-take-off, and a pendular suspended front axel.

You can see all the photos of Flidsager’s incredible Technic New Holland T8.420 on Brickshelf via the link above, and you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks Technic forum here.

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We’ve had a good laugh at many of Eastern Europe’s Fiat knock-offs here in the past – ok, all of them – but this one is a bit different. Before the ubiquitous Fiat 124 was reproduced by every dictatorship behind the iron curtain Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Puch manufactured Fiat’s lovely little 500 under license.

Puch’s effort succeeded where every other reproduction before or since failed because it was arguably better than the original car being produced by the thousand in Italy. Puch replaced Fiat’s inline two-cylinder motor with a flat boxer engine of their own design, giving their version of the 500 a more refined drive than Fiat’s.

Around 60,000 units were produced in a manufacturing run that lasted almost two decades, before the Steyr-Puch company was split up and sold off to a variety of different buyers in the 1980s. Brickshelf’s cubo remembers the Austrian success story with his charming Lego recreation. See more at the link.

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With the news that FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) is putting the world’s largest manufacturer of crappy branded merchandise – Ferrari – up for sale, we thought we’d step back to a time when the prancing horse built cars, and only cars. This was one of their finest, the glorious 288 GTO. Senator Chinchilla – who’s becoming something of a regular here – is the builder, and you can see more of his Model Team 288 GTO on Flickr at the link.

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We found this model too late for Halloween, but it would have been a perfect Frankenstein’s monster for the festival of all things horrible!

Many vehicle manufacturers have sold off their old designs to be re-built (badly) by state-run abominations within oppressive totalitarian regimes. Mitsubishi, Renault, Rover and – most prolifically of all – Fiat, have all seen their retired cars re-borne overseas. Lada, Yugo, Zastava, and FSO amongst others all owe their engineering to Fiat, and they all had one thing in common. They were complete sh*…

Fortunately the people of Poland are now unshackled from both the tyranny of communism and the FSO Polonez they had little option but to drive. The FSO company didn’t last long in the free world after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the factory closed down in the early ’00s.

The FSO Polonez is therefore quite a strange choice for a Lego Technic ‘Supercar’, but that’s just what newcomer Krzysztof Cytacki has chosen to recreate, and in doing so he’s built one of the finest and most accurate Supercars we’ve ever seen.

Underneath the stylish bodywork there’s a perfectly replicated engine, gearbox, interior, steering and suspension system, plus opening doors, hood and hatchback, working windscreen wipers and LED lights. It really is one of the best Technic Supercars ever built.

You can see Krzysztof’s creation in a huge gallery on Flickr by way of the link above – it’s well worth a few clicks.

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After a string of non-car related posts the Elves were under strict instructions to bring us back something with wheels. They fulfilled the task admirably, by finding us a new creation by one of Flickr’s most prolific car builders.

Lino M, despite his car-building fame, didn’t actually own a car until recently. However, he’s now the proud owner of a gorgeous Fiat 500, which he’s recreated perfectly in plastic. We love the Fiat 500 here at TLCB Towers, partly because it’s a small European city car, and they’re almost always great, and partly (mostly) because its drivers seem to almost always be attractive girls.

Lino’s reincarnation in brick form isn’t quite as appealing to us as the Fiat’s usual pilots (sorry Lino), but his Model Team style 500 is certainly as lovely as the real versions that pass by the office every day. You can see more of Lino’s brick Fiat (and his brick Lino) at Flickr – just click the link above.

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We hand over TLCB keyboard to a Guest Blogger today; Chris Elliott has appeared here with a few of his own excellent Lego vehicles. Today he sits on the other side of the desk to do some blogging of his own…

Today we have two small European gems – one which is a gem for its beautiful styling and grace, the other which is a gem for its lack thereof.

Starting in England first, we have this lovely three-wheeled classic: the Reliant Robin. Perhaps one of the most unfortunate cars ever made, this charming little dud has garnered a great following among cultists for its unusual construction, specifically its singular front wheel, made most infamous by a particularly hilarious episode of the UK show ‘Top Gear.’

Moving south to Italy, we have this beautiful Fiat 500, remarkable not only for its level of detail, but for the small size at which those details are achieved. The 500 is a reincarnation of what is perhaps Italy’s most prolific car, the vintage Fiat 500. Today, its revival has a worldwide following for its stylish looks and fun performance.

Both of these wonderful vehicles were created by 1saac W. on Flickr, and you can show your love for them there via the links.

Many thanks to Chris for joining us today. If you think you might like to get involved in writing for TLCB then you can get in touch with us in usual ways.

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Flickr’s Karwik is a regular here at The Lego Car Blog, with over a dozen of his beautiful Town vehicles featured here since our inception. Today he adds no less than six more creations to his blog-count with this simply wonderful Star C-28 Car Transporter complete with Polski-Fiat load.

Five Polski-Fiat 125ps feature, with three sedans, one station wagon and even a pick-up loaded onto the ZBNS D-91 trailer. All variants were, er… rubbish, but that doesn’t stop them looking spectacular in Lego form with Karwik’s huge attention to detail evident on each one.

We highly recommend a visit to Karwik’s photostream to see more of the Star C-28 truck, ZBNS trailer, and its Fiat 125p load. You can also view all of Karwik’s other incredible blogged creations by typing his name into the search box at the foot of this page (or at the top right for those viewing on mobile devices). Now, time for us to give a very lucky Elf six Smarties (and possibly diabetes).